Market Announcements
Market Summary
After benefitting from last week’s index reshuffles, Ebos Group has struggled to hold onto its gains and pulled the index downwards.
The New Zealand benchmark S&P/NZX 50 lost 0.68% to 13,141.54 points on Monday, with 27.1 million shares worth $98.1m changing hands.
There were 71 gainers and 72 decliners.
Ebos Group was the largest detractor on the index, falling 3.88% to $28.70 on trading volumes worth more than $6.1m.
Tower trimmed 1.14% to $1.73, and Chorus cut 1.48% to end the day on $9.29.
Spark NZ rose 1.72% to $2.37 but remains down nearly 20% for the year to date.
Sales and risers
Travelling in the other direction was Vital Healthcare, which had passed a liquidity test for FTSE index inclusion.
The healthcare-related building investor rose 2.75% to $2.24.
The a2 Milk Company disclosed that its executive team had sold more than $6m worth of company shares to meet their tax obligations.
Included in the on-market sales were 242,345 shares held by managing director and chief executive David Bortolussi.
Meanwhile, a substantial product holder notice released in the afternoon showed that Harbour Asset Management grew its holding of Mainfreight to over 5%.
The a2 Milk Company's shares traded almost flat at $9.58, while Mainfreight lost 1.84% to $63.00. Heartland Group added 1.57% to 97 cents after it said it had begun edging towards selling almost $400m of non-strategic assets by selling a stake in Harmoney Corp.
Gold
Santana Minerals’ shares rose 2.89% to 89 cents after the precious metals explorer said its Rise and Shine gold deposit was "potentially much bigger" than previously thought.
Small-cap New Talisman Gold Mines also gained, jumping 5.17% to 6 cents on low volumes.
Gold, a safe-haven asset, is trading near record highs and heading towards US$4,000 (NZ$6,828) an ounce.
After Stats NZ's weaker-than-expected GDP data release last week, economists are expecting the economy to bounce back in the September quarter.
Source: BusinessDesk
Australian Market Report
Ahead of the local open SPI futures were 3 points higher at 8826.
- close [Morningstar with AAP]: Australia's share market has edged higher after a choppy trading session, riding out the storm as strong commodity prices supported a mining sector rally.
The S&P/ASX200 rose 37.4 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 8,810.9 on Monday, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 40.9 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 9,102.1.
The top-200 spiked in early trading following a strong Friday finish from Wall Street, but handed back roughly half the early gains over the session.
"We rallied a quick 72 points up about 0.8 per cent early in trading, but we have seen the market ease back towards that 8800 level this afternoon, which has acted like somewhat of a magnet for the majority of this month," IG Markets analyst Tony Sycamore told AAP.
The local bourse's recent relative underperformance could soon work in its favour as fund managers looked to rebalance their portfolios at the end of the month.
"After three weeks of declines, the ASX 200 is standing out as a market that can benefit from rebalancing into month end. They'll sell their winners and buy the (recent) losers," Mr Sycamore said.
As six of 11 local sectors closed in the green, materials stocks were the clear winners, jumping more than two per cent as commodity prices underpinned strength in large cap iron ore miners, gold miners and uranium plays.
Fortescue rallied 3.2 per cent, Rio Tinto jumped 2.6 per cent, and BHP pushed one per cent higher, as China's state-run iron ore trader urged domestic mills to avoid one of BHP's popular products.
Gold miners were among the top-200's best performers, with Genesis Mining rocketing 13.7 per cent, while bigger players like Northern Star (+8.2 per cent) and Evolution (+6.3 per cent) also shined.
The precious metal has again broken its all-time high to trade hands near $US3,720 ($A5,646) an ounce.
Uranium-focused companies also did well, with enrichment company Silex Systems rallying 3.8 per cent, and Paladin pushing 4.6 per cent higher as smaller miner Boss Energy surged almost seven per cent to $2.04.
Financials were far less impressive, fading 0.2 per cent as CBA led three of the big four banks lower and Westpac finished roughly flat.
Energy stocks and real estate plays were the worst performing sectors, each down 0.7 per cent and tracking with drops for their respective market giants, Woodside and Goodman Group.
Bucking the trend was Santos, which pushed 0.4 per cent higher to $6.80 after getting the first gas out of its $4.7 billion Barossa gas project off the Northern Territory coast.
The Australian dollar is buying 65.88 US cents, down from 65.95 on Friday at 5pm, as the US dollar strength index continued to recover after hitting multi-year lows last week.
Looking ahead, the Australian Bureau of Statistics releases its monthly consumer price index indicator on Wednesday. Analysts expect the figure to ease to 2.6 per cent after energy rebate timing prompted hotter-than-expected numbers in July.
"There's probably not going to be too much there to shift the dial away from the expectation the Reserve Bank will cut rates in November - still fairly solidly priced at around 80 per cent (likely)," Mr Sycamore told AAP.
ON THE ASX:
The S&P/ASX200 rose 37.4 points on Monday, or 0.43 per cent, to 8,810.9
The broader All Ordinaries gained 40.9 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 9,102.1
The NZX 50 Lost -6.11 points (-0.05%) to 13135.43
Overseas Market Report
[Morningstar with Dow Jones]:
U.S. stocks ended higher. The DJIA rose 0.1% to 46,381.54, the S&P 500 added 0.4% to 6,693.75 and the Nasdaq gained 0.7% to 22,788.98.
Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Teradyne Inc TER surging 12.77%, Oracle Corp ORCL jumped 6.34%, and Applied Materials Inc AMAT lifted 5.50%.
The biggest decliners were Kenvue Inc KVUE which dropped 7.47%, Match Group Inc MTCH fell 5.48%, and Keurig Dr Pepper Inc KDP lost 4.32%.
Asia
Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2% to 3,828.58 and the Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 0.6% to 2,486.42.
Hong Kong shares ended lower. The benchmark Hang Seng Index declined 0.8% to 26,344.14.
Japanese shares ended higher. The Nikkei Stock Average added 1% to 45,493.66.
India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX declined 0.6% to 82,159.97.
Europe
Stocks in the U.K. finished higher. The FTSE 100 Index added 0.1% to 9,226.68. In Europe, shares closed lower. The Germany's DAX dropped 0.5% to 23,527.05, and the France's CAC 40 fell 0.3% to 7,830.11
